The Book of Lenins (Das Buch Lenins)
(DEUTSCH UNTEN)
SYNOPSIS:
Spurred on by his zealous publisher, a wide-eyed American photographer roams the globe in search of the last remaining Lenin statues. But what he finds isn’t exactly what his publisher had in mind. An ironic take on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.
FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT
THE BOOK OF LENINS documents my attempt to make a book about Lenin monuments, a project which began with a series of photographs I took during my first trip to the USSR in 1989 – several years before I struck upon the idea of making a film about my Lenin odyssey. In this film, I have coupled unusual uses of archival and original photographs with live footage in order to document both the voyage which began before the film project came to life as well as the film journey itself. The climax is undoubtedly the exhuming of the 60 foot Lenin statue which stood in East Berlin until 1992, and which the new German government had torn down and buried in a forest near the city limits. It is symptomatic of how the new governments in the former East Bloc countries are dealing with their communist heritage. I hope that my light-hearted American approach to this heavy historical subject will make the film equally accessible to audiences in both the East and the West, and give some insight into what has happened in Central and Eastern Europe since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
KURZINHALT
Angetrieben von seinem eifrigen Verleger durchzieht ein amerikanischer Fotograf die Welt auf der Suche nach den letzten verbliebenen Leninstatuen. Doch worauf er stößt, ist nicht genau das, woran sein Auftraggeber denkt. Ein ironischer Blick auf Osteuropa in der Zeit nach dem Kalten Krieg.
STATEMENT DES FILMEMACHERS:
DAS BUCH DER LENINS dokumentiert meinen Versuch, ein Buch über Lenindenkmäler zu machen – ein Projekt, das mit einer Fotoserie von meiner ersten Reise in die UdSSR 1989 begann – mehrere Jahre bevor ich auf die Idee kam, einen Film über meine Leninodysee zu drehen. In diesem Film montiere ich auf ungewöhnliche Weise Archiv- und Originalfotos mit Realeinstellungen, um sowohl die Reise, die vor dem Film begann, als auch die Filmreise selbst zu dokumentieren. Den Höhepunkt bildet die Ausgrabung des Restes des 19 Meter langen Lenindenkmals, das bis 1992 in Berlin-Friedrichshain stand und auf Anweisung des Berliner Senats im Wald im Ostberliner Müggelheim vergraben wurde. Ich hoffe, daß meine leichte amerikanische Herangehensweise an ein ernstes historisches Thema den Film sowohl für ein Publikum im Osten als auch Westen zugänglich macht.

The Book of Lenins (Das Buch Lenins) - Deluxe Edition

Spurred on by his zealous publisher, a wide-eyed American photographer roams the globe in search of the last remaining Lenin statues. But what he finds isn’t exactly what his publisher had in mind. An ironic take on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.

The deluxe edition contains two additional short films by Rick Minnich which he made in 1993 and 1994 in Berlin: "Next Time Everything Will Be Better" (Beim nächsten Mal wird alles besser) and "Delphi 1830". All films were shot on 16mm and were newly transferred to HD from the original camera negatives in 2016.

1+ hours total

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Next Time Everything Will Be Better (Beim nächsten Mal wird alles besser)

9m 15s — 1 subtitle

“Next Time Everything Will Be Better”: An anarchist, an intellectual, and a dope-smoking pleasure seeker band together to take history into their own hands in post-Cold War Berlin. But things don’t always go their way when wires get crossed . . .

Delphi 1830

2m 39s

Using pixillation, DELPHI 1830 portrays one day during the 1993 Berlin Film Festival. The rapid speed of the images accompanied by the associative sound montage convey the hectic pace with which the film-obsessed protagonist races from one cinema to the next. In an exhilarating, often comical way...

The Book of Lenins - excavation scene

1m 28s

The Book of Lenins - English version

23m — 3 subtitles

Synopsis:
Spurred on by his zealous publisher, a wide-eyed American photographer roams the globe in search of the last remaining Lenin statues. But what he finds isn’t exactly what his publisher had in mind. An ironic take on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.

The Book of Lenins (Das Buch Lenins) - Deluxe Edition

6 videos

Spurred on by his zealous publisher, a wide-eyed American photographer roams the globe in search of the last remaining Lenin statues. But what he finds isn’t exactly what his publisher had in mind. An ironic take on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.

The Book of Lenins (Das Buch Lenins)

4 videos

(DEUTSCH UNTEN)

SYNOPSIS:
Spurred on by his zealous publisher, a wide-eyed American photographer roams the globe in search of the last remaining Lenin statues. But what he finds isn’t exactly what his publisher had in mind. An ironic take on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.